Cleveland (October, 2024)
It was a beautiful Ohio fall day on Saturday, October 12, as a crowd of 300 gathered at Cleveland’s Voinovich Park on the lakefront for the dedication of the Lone Sailor Plaza. NEOPAT was proud to support the USS Cleveland Legacy Foundation in this initiative. Only the eighth plaza of it’s kind in the country, the Plaza features the famous Lone Sailor statue and two Honor and Memorial Walls featuring personalized plaques with the names of men and women from Northeast Ohio who have served the Nation in America’s Sea Services. Included is a special plaque, co-sponsored by NEOPAT, honoring Navy Corpsmen Maxton Soviak of Berlin, Ohio, and Westlake, Ohio, World War II Navy Corpsman and Silver Star recipient Emory Crowder.
In its permanent new home, the Cleveland Lone Sailor Monument and Plaza will provide a meaningful location for special ceremonies, including enlistments, commissioning’s, advancements, promotions, retirements and memorial services. It will draw Clevelanders and out-of-town visitors alike to the lakefront and reflect the USS Cleveland Legacy Foundation and NEOPAT’s vision “to support positive civil-military relations by creating and maintaining a strong, meaningful and direct bond between citizens of northeast Ohio and the crew of USS Cleveland (LCS 31).
